


home town's bringing you down

by ErinNovelist



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Depends how you wanna see it, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Relationship, Romance, Some angst, at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 02:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10935390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinNovelist/pseuds/ErinNovelist
Summary: Allura closed her eyes, hands forming fists again. “A few vargas won’t hurt you, Keith.”“And they won’t help Shiro,” he said, eyes glinting wildly as he scanned the planets for any sort of sign, anything that could possibly lead to Shiro. “I need to find him, Allura.”“You need sleep—”“No, I need to find him.” His tone left no room for argument, but she wasn’t one to concede defeat so easily.





	home town's bringing you down

It’d been a month since the world ended. 

It was crazy to think about how one month could have passed since Zarkon’s defeat, Lotor’s ascension, and Shiro’s…. Shiro’s disappearance. The reminder caused her heart to _pang_ sharply against her ribs because it had already been one month, and it seemed like no time had passed at all. Each day passed with little occurrence, perhaps another battle or two as Lotor was gaining ground quite quickly, but for her, it just remained the same. Each day—simple and stagnant—passed by, and her team was still falling apart.

The thought truly unnerved her. How long had it been since Lance cracked a joke, or Pidge got a good’s night rest? Since Hunk experimented with different recipes, or Coran tinkered with the guidance systems? How long had it been since she could walk past Shiro’s quarters without staring longingly at the door, wishing to open it knowing there was no one there? How long had it been since Keith had permanently relocated to the training room? …How long had it been since Keith _smiled_? 

Losing Shiro had hit them all deeply, like a fatal blow that they could never recover from. It had been one month since he’d disappeared, and they were no closer to finding him now than they had been four weeks ago.  Like star dust, he’d simply blown away and become something else, and they had neither a speck or spot to hold onto, only the memory of what he once was ( _who_ he once was). All that was left was the imprint he’d left behind. It wasn’t enough though.

Walking past his quarters, she refused to look at the door again, having done it more than enough today. Head held high, eyes focused straight ahead, Allura marched past the communal kitchens, the training room, the common room—past everything that reminded her of Shiro—and headed for the Star Deck. 

There was someone she needed to see.

Pushing open the door to the Star Deck, she was greeted with a sight she knew all too well. The star maps were activated, celestial bodies dancing in the air and bathing the room in its brilliant blue glow. In the center of it all sat Keith, sock-clad feet pulled close and arms looped around his legs with his chin resting atop his knees. Heavy-lidded eyes traced the stars as they circled around him like the firejays of Altea in the fields back home, diving in to kiss his pale, sunken cheeks as if to breathe life back into him. 

Her fingers tangled in the fabric of her nightgown and formed tight fists at her side, as she was on edge and ready to fight—whether it was the unknown force that had taken Shiro from them or the demons that haunted Keith every night. Sighing to herself, she crept closer to join him, and though he made no move at the sound of her approach, there was no doubt he knew she was there.

Folding her legs underneath herself, she leaned back on her hands, pressing her palms into the cool glossy tile of the floor, and tried not to think about Shiro floating in the middle of cold, dead space. Joining Keith during his nightly excursions always brought the same thoughts and fears to mind, and while she could have simply ignored it and settled in for a long night’s sleep, Allura could never leave a teammate in pain alone to face a sleepless slumber. That’s how nightmares were born as it didn’t matter whether you were awake or asleep, only that you were alone and afraid. 

“You should be asleep,” Keith told her.   

“I should say the same for you,” she answered, voice low even though it was only the two of them in the room, as if noise would break the fragile, _precious_ stillness between them. “You’ve been here for a quarter cycle.” 

“Have I?” Keith simply shrugged, still staring at the stars. “I couldn’t tell.”

“Well I could,” she said, turning her gaze on him. Under the dim blue light, he looked even sicker and weaker than before, from the heavy bags under his eyes and the faint trembling that waged a war on his body. He needed rest, but he refused to leave the room even for a tic.

“Doesn’t matter,” he quipped and raised a hand from his legs, two fingers pointed upwards, and he flicked his wrist, sending the universe whirling in a nauseating twirl around them. “I’ll sleep after I find him.”

Allura closed her eyes, hands forming fists again. “A few vargas won’t hurt you, Keith.”

“And they won’t help Shiro,” he said, eyes glinting wildly as he scanned the planets for any sort of sign, anything that could possibly lead to Shiro. “I need to find him, Allura.”

“You need _sleep_ —”

“No, I _need_ to find him.” His tone left no room for argument, but she wasn’t one to concede defeat so easily.

“Your team needs you to sleep,” she answered in response.

He froze at her words, hand pausing in midair, fingers shaking visibly now. “…They’re not my team. They’re Shiro’s,” he whispered lowly.

She huffed out a breathless laugh at that. “They will always be your team, regardless of who leads them.” 

He didn’t respond.  

“It’s how families work, Keith,” she told him, and the all-too-familiar words, ones she knew that had been spoken by Shiro every time Keith needed to hear it, seemed to break him. His hand dropped back down to his chest, fingers splayed across his black shirt as if to protect his heart from any more blows.

Allura sighed and leaned forward, raising her hands up to her hair to let her bun down from its clips, white tresses spilling around her shoulders. She ran a hand through it, working out any knots that might have remained, absently fidgeting to give Keith time to process his thoughts. After a few moments, she cast him a sideways glance. His eyes snapped back up to the stars as soon as he’d noticed her looking back at him, but she’d still seen it. 

There were a few more beats of silence between them until Keith finally gathered the courage to meet her gaze. “It’s not fair,” he said, lips drawn tight into a thin, wobbly line. “Everyone always leaves.” 

“Keith—”

“I let him go the first time he was taken, back at Kerberos.” His words were shaking and slurring, as if his whole world had turned slippery, and now he was fighting to find any sort of hold to anchor himself. “They told me he was dead and that it was a pilot error. I knew they were lying, but I never doubted he was dead… And I was _wrong_.”

He hugged his knees closer to his chest, pressing his nose between them as he struggled to steady himself. If there was one thing she knew about Keith, it was that he hated to lose control of anything—the situation, the team, and his emotions. Watching him fall apart was almost as if someone had put his heart on the floor in front of her and was now smashing it to smithereens, and each cringe and flinch crossing his face hurt her own. She didn’t like it, and she wanted to stop it. With a soft, slow hand, she touched his shoulder, and the heavy, familiar weight seemed to drain the tension from his body, leaving only the shaky shell behind.

“It’s going to be alright,” she told him, repeating the same words she told him every night.

He looked at her with wild eyes, searching for answers in her face the same way he searched alien skies for familiar constellations. “I can’t lose him again. I was wrong before, but I won’t make the same mistake. I _need_ to find him. You can’t stop me from doing what I need to do.” 

Normally, this was the point where she’d finally retreat for her own quarters, upset and hurt that Keith wouldn’t listen to her. However, tonight was different. Things were changing. Keith was _opening_ up doors that had always been shut tight, and unlike the door to Shiro’s quarters, where she knew nothing would be on the other side, there was something here to greet her when she peered inside Keith’s. It was a young man who held his heart close to him, a bruised heart that had beaten itself bloody banging against his rib cage just trying to get out, one he’d locked away because he was afraid of someone else hurting it more than he already did himself, but now held it out to her, waiting to see whether she’d hurt or heal it. 

“Let me help,” she finally said, raising her fingers towards the star map. Swiping them quickly, she scanned the familiar planets, names and numbers rolling past at light speed. “Did you check the Quanta-Quadrant for any disturbances?”

Keith was silent beside her, and she turned to look at him, a question on the tip of her tongue. A small smile slowly blossomed across his face, light flickering in his dull, gray eyes, and for a small moment, he seemed to come alive again.

“Keith?” she asked, breaking him from his own reverie.

“…No, I was looking at X97 because that’s where the Blades last saw Haggar,” he said and turned back to the star maps, voice droning on as he explained his search to her. 

Allura let her own soft smile tug at her lips as she stared at Keith, a fond look blooming across her face. A warmth sparked in the pit of her stomach as Keith suddenly reached up for her hand that rested on his shoulder, slipping his fingers between her own, and lowered it back to the floor, though their hands remained intertwined.

It’d been one month since their world had ended, and the days passed by, slow and stagnant. But things were changing, this Allura knew. Tomorrow would be a different day, one she could continue with Keith and the rest of their team, each given the choice to take action or remain the same stoic robots they’d been since Shiro disappeared. Hopefully, she thought to herself, they chose right.

It’d been one month since their world ended, but perhaps it could finally start healing.


End file.
